The Fabulist Reviews

Reviews, essays, interviews, and other nonfiction “related works.”

Herzog in a Star Wars western? Meet ‘The Mandalorian’ (Review)

“The Mandalorian,” the first live action Star Wars TV series, is the Star Wars fan’s wet dream. It is a gritty take on Star Wars, so obsessed with the scum and villainy side of the ...

David Tennant reads vampire stories, Michael Moorcock’s rock ‘n’ roll chaos

(Above: Edvard Munch, "Vampyr") David Tennant reads vampire stories: Hallowe'en has come for you a little early with this special treat — great vampire fiction by Fritz Leiber, Richard Matheson, Edith Wharton and other great ...

Here’s a li’l dish of Disney’s latest Star Wars and Marvel trailers …

(Above, the new WandaVision TV series appears to be pegged to a 2015 Marvel comic.) There's a dope new trailer-ish thing for Star Wars Episode IX: The Rise of Skywalker, mashing up previous episodes and ...

Strange transits through “The Daylight Gate” (review)

The Daylight GateBy Jeanette WintersonGrove Press (2012) Buy this book via IndieBound Unfailingly dire, unflinchingly bloody, full of love and license, and brimming over with real devotion and all-too-human devilry, Jeanette Winterson’s “The Daylight Gate“ ...

Let Sleeping Dogs Lie: Gene Wolfe’s ‘The Fifth Head of Cerberus’ (Review)

Support indie booksellers and buy this book via IndieBound • Amazon users can buy this book as a trade paperback (Gollancz SF Masterworks edition) or a Kindle ebook. The Fifth Head of Cerberus: Three NovellasBy ...

On Octavia E. Butler’s Birthday, Why Not Read Some of Her Game-Changing Classics?

[All links to books are via IndieBound.] Octavia E. Butler's birthday is today, June 22, and her death in 2006 at age 58 — attributed variously to a stroke and also a head injury — ...

Neil Gaiman on Gene Wolfe, Stranger Things 3 trailer, all 37 Batman TV villains, ‘Peanuts’ vs. ‘The Thing’

At a time when TV adaptations of classic works of SF/F are coming fast and thick, Neil Gaiman's appreciation of the late Gene Wolfe's most famous work is also a testimonial to the pleasures of ...

Elana Levin: ‘The Dark Phoenix Saga as Jean’s Most Iconic Story is a Mixed Bag’

As a comics expert, host of the Graphic Policy podcaster and all-around fan of sequential graphic narrative, Elana Levin brings high-level feminist discourse and deep comics knowledge to the table in this conversation about one ...

Everything I Know About ‘Godzilla: King of the Monsters’ I Learned From ‘B.P.R.D.’ (Review)

You can stream this movie via Amazon or buy the fancy Blu Ray DVD. (Spoilers a-plenty in here, if that matters in a vaguely plotted stomp-a-rama.) There are three essential things you need to keep ...

Miyazaki museum show, Starfleet on Mars, new ‘Dune’ TV serial, ‘Swamp Thing’ canceled, Mothra theme song and more

This week in Flotsam & Jetsam, our weekly overview of pop-cultural driftwood and sea-glass we trawled up from the Internet, its a giant heaping net full of comics, TV and sci-fi, from Dune to Star ...

‘Dark Phoenix’ and the persistence of Jean Grey

She’s a goddess of fire and destruction, dangerous and beautiful, the chosen vessel of an inextinguishable, wildly powerful cosmic life force. But, no mere puppet on a string, she wields that power with purpose and ...

Godzilla, Bugs Bunny, anti-fascism: We read the Internet so you don’t have to

Popular Mechanics, unable to suspend its disbelief, provides an awesome illo and a few paragraphs of pure science that handily disprove the possibility of anything as huge as Godzilla ever walking the Earth. Intellectual Takeout ...

Because that Game of Thrones tapestry didn’t just embroider itself

That 70-meter-long Game of Thrones tapestry didn't just embroider itself. In fact a crew of 30 women in Belfast took to the task, producing an 11th-century style, hand-stitched cloth that represents 77 hours of video ...

NASA’s media archive is now open to the public

NASA has opened its entire media library to the public, for free. This includes photos, audio recordings and videos, with subjects ranging from earthbound crew, gear and launch operations, to concept designs, scientific observations and ...

Godzilla: The monster is the metaphor (no rly)

With "Godzilla: King of the Monsters" now stomping across big screens everywhere, The Atlantic has stepped up with a fine cinematic history of the iconic kaiju that also includes a thoroughgoing look at the magnificent ...

Gelflings, Skeksis and muppet exotica return in ‘Dark Crystal: Age of Resistance’ (trailer)

The long-anticipated follow-up to Jim Henson's classic 1982 feature film "The Dark Crystal" is no longer just a glimmer of hope in the hearts of fandom: A new, serialized prequel (no, not a sequel; more ...

It’s a Wonderful Apocalypse (Review)

“Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch,” by Neil Gaiman and Terry PratchettHarperCollinsISBN: 0-575-04800-X400 pages Buy this book from an independent bookseller via IndieBound • Amazon users can buy this book ...

When History Goes ‘Wonderfully Wrong’ (Review)

Review: “The Lucky Strike,” by Kim Stanley RobinsonPM PressISBN: 978-1-60486-085-6128 pages Support independent booksellers buy purchasing this book via IndieBound • Amazon users can get it in paperback and Kindle ebook editions. It takes no ...

Magical Escapes in a City of Sunlight and Shadows (Review)

“Passing Strange,” by Ellen KlagesTor/ForgeISBN: 9780765389527224 Pages Support independent booksellers by purchasing this book via IndieBound • Amazon users can get it as a Kindle ebook or a trade paperback. What a sparkling jewel-box of ...

‘The Atavist’ Adds a Humanist Twist to Time Travel

[Fresh from touring her award-winning science-fiction short "Real Artists," Cameo Wood, the impresario behind Charming Stranger Films, is hard at work with a new feature-length production — "The Atavist," a time-traveling tale with a humanist ...